Electric current collector



1956 J. M. HOLLANDER ELECTRIC CURRENT COLLECTOR Filed Jan. 29, 1963 2C 22 2/6 24 IO FIG. 3.

FIG. 4.

United States Patent ()fiice 3,231,689 ELECTRIC CURRENT COLLECTOR John Michael Hollander, Kenilworth, England, assignor to E. M. 5. Electrical Products Limited, Kenilworth, England Filed Jan. 29, 1963, Ser. No. 254,719 Claims. (Cl. 191--64) The invention relates to an electric current collector, for an electrically-operated apparatus adapted to be traversed along rails which are parallel to a naked supply conductor, of the kind including an arm which is pivoted on a transverse axis at one end from the apparatus and biased for a groove of a current collecting shoe at its other end to be urged into engagement with the supply conductor, and which is pivotally supported from the apparatus on a second axis at right-angles to the first one so that it can swing laterally to enable the shoe to follow the conductor round curves, and in which the shoe is pivoted from the arm so as to swivel for the groove of the shoe to be correctly orientated for maintaining engagement with the conductor. It is common for there to be interruptions in the supply conductor, and although these can be electrically bridged for ensuring continuity of the circuit if desired a disadvantage arises owing to the arm, or the shoe, or both of them being able to turn laterally about their pivots when the shoe rides off the conductor at one end of the interruption and is urged behind the plane of the operative surface of the conductor by the bias acting on the arm, such that the shoe may not be in the proper position for engaging the conductor at the other side of the gap. The object of the invention is to mitigate that disadvantage.

According to the invention, means acted upon by a bias, is provided to operate abutments for inhibiting the swivelling movement of the shoe, and the lateral swinging of the arm, and thus to centralise the collector and arm, whenever the shoe rides off the conductor at one end of the interruption and is urged behind the plane of the operative surface of the conductor by the bias acting on the arm.

According to a feature of the invention, the bias acting on the arm for urging the shoe into engagement with the conductor also serves for actuating the abutments.

According to a further feature the arm is of unequal L-shape, the longer limb of the arm being formed hollow, and the outer end of the shorter limb of the arm being pivoted on the transverse axis from the lower end of a pivot pin, providing the said second axis, supported from the said apparatus.

In such a case, and according to a still further feature, the hollow interior of the longer limb contains a tube which provides an abutment for holding the shoe in its centralised position.

Also in such a case, and according toanother feature, the bias acting on the arm is a tension spring, arranged within the tube, anchored at one end to the said apparatus and at the other end to the outer end of the longer limb of the arm adjacent a support for the shoe, the ends of the tube being flat and coacting with flat surfaces of the shoe support and a support for the arm for preventing the shoe, or the arm from pivoting laterally when the tension spring shortens as a result of it moving the arm consequent on the shoe riding oil the end of the conductor.

According to yet another feature the said other end of the spring is anchored to the outer end of the longer limb of the arm by being engaged with a pin which extends transversely through the said limb and an openended slot in the tube and additionally acts as the swivel pivot for the shoe.

According to a still further feature surfaces of the 3,231,689 Patented Jan. 25, 1966 arm and a support therefor provide abutments for cent'ralising the arm when the shoe rides off the conductor.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of one form of current collector in accordance with the invention shown in association with a conductor;

FIGURE 2 is an end elevation from the left-hand end of FIGURE 1 of the collecting shoe and its support;

FIGURE 3 is a section on the line 33 of FIGURE 1, and

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of a bracket shown in FIGURE 1 for securing the collector to apparatus to be supplied with electric current.

Referring to the drawings, the conductor is shown at 10, the collecting shoe at 11, the longer and shorter limbs of an L-shaped arm at 12 and 13, and a bracket for attachment to the apparatus to be supplied (not shown) at 14. The bracket is adapted to be clamped to a channelshaped transverse member 15 of the apparatus by a clamping bolt inserted through a hole 16 of the bracket and engaged in a clamping plate Within the channel of member 15 so as to provide for the path of the collector shoe to be aligned with the conductor when the apparatus is moved along its rails.

The collector shoe in the example illustrated comprises a pair of identical mouldings 17, 18 of insulating material which, by a screw 19, clamp a conducting memher 2% between them. The operative edge of the latter is straight as shown in FIGURE 1 but it is grooved as shown at 20a in FIGURE 2 so as to fit the lower edge of the conductor, which is similarly rounded. 'A tapping 21 for supplying the apparatus is conductively secured to member 20 by a tab 22. The mouldings 17 and 18 have integral, aligned stubs 23 and 24 to provide a trunnion bearing in holes in cheeks 25 and 26 of a support for the shoe.

The cheeks 25 and 26 have respective holes 27, 28 giving access to screw 19, and they are bent up from opposite sides of one limb 29 of a U-shaped bracket of which the other arm is shown at 30 and the connecting bridge at 31. This bracket is pivoted at the outer end of arm 12 by a pin 32 which extends through the arm 12, which is hollow, and also serves as an anchorage for the adjacent end of a tension spring 33 which extends through the said arm and has its other end anchored to a pivot pin 34 journalled in bracket 14. The foot of arm 13 is pivoted on a transverse axis at 35 to an extending lower end of pivot pin 34. As thus far described it will be seen that spring 33 biases arm 12, 13 clockwise about pivot 35 for urging conducting member 20 into firm running engagement with conductor 10, and that arm 12, 13 can pivot laterally about pivot pin 34.

It will be seen that arm 12 is formed separately from arm 13, the latter being provided with a hollow boss 36 into which the adjacent end of arm 12 fits tightly. Within the hollow interior of arm 12 is a tube 37 which is a sliding fit and also surrounds spring 33. The ends of this tube are flat in a plane normal to the axis of the said tube, one of these ends, which extends from boss 36, being opposed to pivot pin 34, and the other end being diametrically slotted at 39 to straddle pivot pin 32.

In the normal operating position shown there is clearance between pivot pin 34 and the adjacent end of tube 37, and between the opposite end of the latter and the inner face of bridging member 31, and pin 32 is clear of the bottom of slots 39. When, however, conducting member 20 runs off the end of a conductor 10 at one side of an interruption, the result is that spring 33 moves arm 12 and 13 clockwise about pivot 35 and urges member 20 beyond the plane of the operative edge of the conductor. This clockwise movement is limited by a flat face 13a of arm 13 moving into abutting relationship with a flat face 40 of bracket 14 whereby to prevent lateral pivotal movement of arm 12, 13 about pivot pin 34 or, if the said arm is in a laterally pivoted position, to centralise it; and it also moves the extending end of tube 37 into engagement with pivot pin 34 to cause the latter to slide tube 37 within arm 12 against spring 33 until the flat remote end 37a of tube 37 engages the adjacent fiat face of bridging member 31 and swings it about pivot pin 32 to centralise the shoe. The arm 12, 13, and shoe 11 are thus centralised so that when the shoe encounters the continuation of the conductor at the remote side of the interruption, the shoe is aligned therewith for proper engagement.

By forming bracket 14 with a support 41 for a second pivot pin 34, two of the current collectors can be carried from the same bracket, one extending forwardly and the other extending rearwardly.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An electric current collector, for an electricallyoperated apparatus adapted to be traversed along rails which are parallel to a naked supply conductor, comprising an L-shaped arm, one limb of said arm being downwardly directed, a pivot pin journalled in the apparatus on an upright axis, the bottom of said one limb pivoted on a transverse axis from said pivot pin, a current collecting shoe at the outer end of the other limb of said arm, said shoe having a groove to engage a conductor, means biasing said arm about said transverse axis for said shoe to engage the conductor, said pivot pin supporting said arm from the apparatus so that said arm can swing laterally, said shoe pivoted from said other limb of said arm so as to swivel for the groove of the shoe to be correctly orientated for maintaining engagement with the conductor, a first abutment means adapted to prevent the lateral swinging movement of said arm relatively to the apparatus, a second abutment means to prevent the swivelling movement of said shoe relatively to said other limb of said arm, and said biasing means also serving to make both said first and second abutment means effective when said shoe rides off the conductor at one end of an interruption therein and is urged behind the plane of the operative surface of the conductor by the bias acting on said arm.

2. An electric current collector, for an electricallyoperated apparatus adapted to be traversed along rails which are parallel to a naked supply conductor, comprising an L-shaped arm, one limb of said arm being downwardly directed, a pivot pin journalled in the apparatus on an upright axis, the bottom of said one limb pivoted on a transverse axis from said pivot pin, the other limb of said arm being hollow, a current collecting shoe at the outer end of said other limb of said arm, said shoe having a groove to engage a conductor, a coiled compression spring, an anchorage on the apparatus for one end of said spring, an anchorage at the outer end of said other limb of said arm for the other end of said spring, said spring accommodated within the interior of said other limb of said arm, said spring biasing said arm about said transverse axis for said shoe to engage the conductor, said pivot pin supporting said arm from the apparatus so that said arm can swing laterally, said shoe pivoted from said other limb of said arm so as to swivel for the groove of the shoe to be correctly orientate-d for maintaining engagement with the conductor, first respective coacting flat abutment faces on the apparatus and said one limb of said arm, said first abutment faces adapted to be engaged with each other to prevent the lateral swinging movement of said arm relatively to the apparatus, a second abutment means to prevent the swivelling movement of said shoe relatively to said other limb of said arm, and said spring also serving to urge said first abutment faces into engagement with each other and to make said second abutment'means 4 effective when said shoe rides off the conductor at one end of an interruption therein and is urged behind the 7 plane of the operative surface of the conductor by said spring.

3. An electric current collector, for an electrically-operated apparatus adapted to be traversed along rails which are parallel to a naked supply conductor, comprising an L-shaped arm, one limb of said arm being downwardly directed, a pivot pin journalled in the apparatus on an upright axis, the bottom of said one limb pivoted on a transverse axis from said pivot pin, the other limb of said arm being hollow, a current collecting shoe at the outer end of said other limb of said arm, said shoe having a groove to engage a conductor, a coiled compression spring, an anchorage on the apparatus for one end of said spring, an anchorage at the outer end of said other limb of said arm for the other end of said spring, said spring accommodated within the interior of said other limb of said arm, said spring biasing said arm about said transverse axis for said shoe to engage the conductor, said pivot pin supporting said arm from the apparatus so that said arm can swing laterally, said shoe supported from a bracket, said bracket pivoted from said other limb of said arm so as to swivel for the groove of the shoe to be correctly orientated for maintaining engagement with the conductor, respective coacting fiat abutment faces on the apparatus and said one limb of said arm, said first abutment faces adapted to be engaged with each other to prevent the lateral swinging movement of said arm when said shoe rides off the conductor at one end of an interruption therein and is urged behind the plane of the operative surface of the conductor by said spring, a tube within said other limb of said arm, said bracket having a flat surface extending across the adjacent end of said other limb of said arm, said tube having a first flat end adjacent said bracket and said tube having an opposite fiat end opposed to a flat surface of the apparatus, said spring also serving to cause the flat surface of the apparatus to urge said first flat end of said tube to abut the flat surface of said bracket to prevent swivelling movement of the bracket when said shoe rides off the conductor at one end of an interruption therein and is urged behind the plane of the operative surface of the conductor by the bias acting on the arm.

4. An electric current collector according to claim 3 in which a pin extending diametrically through the hollow other limb of the arm serves as a pivot for the bracket from which the shoe is supported and also as the anchorage for the spring to the said other limb, said pin extending through diametrically opposed open-ended slots in the tube to permit axial movement of the latter in the said other limb of the arm between a position in which said tube inhibits swivelling movement of said bracket when said shoe rides off the conductor at one end of an interruption therein and is urged behind the plane of the operative surface of the conductor by said spring and a position in which said shoe is engaging the conductor and said tube permits such swivelling movement to occur.

5. An electric current collector, for an electrically-operated apparatus adapted to be traversed along rails which are parallel to a naked supply conductor, comprising an arm pivoted at one end on a first transverse axis from the apparatus, a current collecting shoe at the other end of said arm, said shoe having a groove to engage a conductor, means biasing said arm about said transverse axis for said shoe to engage the conductor, said arm pivotally supported from the apparatus on a second transverse axis at right angles to said first transverse axis so that said arm can swing laterally, said shoe pivoted from said arm on an axis parallel with the second transverse axis about which said arm is pivoted from said apparatus whereby said shoe can swivel laterally for the groove of the shoe to be correctly orientated for maintaining engagement with the conductor, a first abutment means on said apparatus, a first coacting abutment fast with said arm,

5 said biasing means urging said first abutment means and said first coacting abutment into engagement with each other when said shoe rides off the conductor at one end of an interruption therein and is urged behind the plane of the operative surface of the conductor whereby to centralise said arm from a laterally swung position, a second abutment means fast with said shoe, a second coacting abutment fast with said arm, said second abutment means and said second coacting abutment having fiat coacting faces, said flat coacting faces moving out of parallel with each other when said shoe is laterally swivelled out of centralisation with respect to said arm, said second coacting abutment movable into engagement with said second abutment means when said biasing means urges said shoe behind the plane of the operative surface after said shoe 15 has ridden off the conductor at one end of an interruption therein whereby said biasing means will cause said coacting faces to engage and move into parallelism so as to 6 centralise said shoe from a laterally swivelled position relatively to said arm.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,262,374 11/ 1941 Schaake 19l59.1 2,325,971 8/1943 Newbrough 191--S9.1 2,860,198 11/1958 Ford et a1 19159.1 3,047,681 7/1962 Dehn l9145 3,060,283 10/1962 Mageoch 191-59.1 3,124,226 3/1964 Sprigings 19l59.1 3,142,368 7/1964 Roney 19160.1 X

EUGENE G. BOTZ, Primary Examiner.

LEO QUACKENBUSH, Examiner.

I. S. SHANK, M. I. HILL, Assistant Examiners. 

1. AN ELECTRIC CURRENT COLLECTOR, FOR AN ELECTRICALLYOPERATED APPARATUS ADAPTED TO BE TRAVERSED ALONG RAILS WHICH ARE PARALLEL TO A NAKED SUPPLY CONDUCTOR, COMPRISING AN L-SHAPED ARM, ONE LIMB OF SAID ARM BEING DOWNWARDLY DIRECTED, A PIVOT PIN JOURNALLED IN THE APPARATUS ON AN UPRIGHT AXIS, THE BOTTOM OF SAID ONE LIMB PIVOTED ON A TRANSVERSE AXIS FROM SAID PIVOT PIN, A CURRENT COLLECTING SHOE AT THE OUTER END OF THE OTHER LIMB OF SAID ARM, SAID SHOE HAVING A GROOVE TO ENGAGE A CONDUCTOR, MEANS BIASING SAID ARM ABOUT SAID TRANSVERSE AXIS FOR SAID SHOE TO ENGAGE THE CONDUCTOR, SAID PIVOT PIN SUPPORTIONG SAID ARM FROM THE APPARATUS SO THAT SAID ARM CAN SWING LATERLLY, SAID SHOE PIVOTED FROM SAID OTHER 